Despite a sweeping evidence scandal that unraveled 67 criminal convictions and charges, OC sheriff officials still are not doing basic audits to make sure such problems aren’t still happening, according to a new investigation report by the county grand jury.
The
grand jury found the widespread evidence mishandling stemmed largely from a
“failure of leadership,” including “no policy in place to provide management
oversight.”
“Therefore
supervisors were not held accountable,” the grand jury found.
It’s
the first in-depth independent investigation of the wide-ranging evidence
scandal, which involved evidence being booked weeks late or not at all, and in
several cases false statements by deputies about whether they actually booked
evidence in criminal cases.
The
scandal led to the dropping of charges including assault, battery, fraud, and
weapon smuggling into a jail, DA prosecutors announced earlier this year.
This
week, the Orange County Grand Jury released its investigation report into the
scandal, finding the sheriff has not done audit checks to make sure the
problems are not still happening.
“An
audit of OCSD department reports submitted from March 2018 forward has not been
conducted to confirm that current OCSD policies and procedures regarding
evidence booking and reporting are being followed,” the grand jury wrote, using
the department’s acronym.
“There
is no documentation confirming that OCSD lieutenants perform evidence booking
spot audits consistently across all divisions, resulting in limited management
accountability and weak internal controls,” they added.
And
DA prosecutors continue to “question whether current OCSD policies and
procedures related to evidence booking and reporting are being followed,” the
grand jury found.
Sheriff
Barnes’ spokeswoman declined to respond to these grand jury findings, saying
the department will respond formally to the grand jury.
State
law gives the department 60 days to officially respond to the grand jury, which
in this case would fall in the second half of July.
Barnes’
spokeswoman also declined to answer how many cases involved deputies or
investigators making false statements about evidence, and why the department
did not review their full set of about 71,000 police reports for evidence
problems after a random sample of 450 reports found that 13% of them had
evidence problems.
So
far, three sheriff’s deputies have been charged with crimes in connection with
the evidence booking problems.
Deputies
Bryce Simpson and Joseph Atkinson pleaded guilty to crimes for failing to
perform their duties. A third deputy, Edwin Mora, was indicted with a felony
last summer for allegedly filing a false police report about evidence. He’s
pleaded not guilty.
Barnes
led the Sheriff’s Department’s day-to-day operations as undersheriff when many
of the known false reports and evidence problems took place.
The
sheriff declined to be interviewed by Voice of OC about the report’s findings.
The
lax approach to evidence booking and false statements was a shift in culture from
the past, according to the jurors.
“Lieutenants
and commanders who have been with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for
several decades were shocked that this could happen,” the grand jury wrote.
“The
practice during their tenure as deputies was that you booked evidence right
away; this type of behavior would never have been acceptable.”
The
only part of the report Barnes’ office commented on was its praise of the
department for what jurors considered a prompt examining of the evidence issues
starting in early 2018.
The
grand jurors did not note in their findings that Sheriff Barnes kept the
evidence mishandling scandal secret for nearly two years until the Orange
County Register was about to reveal it publicly in November 2019.
“The
Grand Jury commended OCSD for taking immediate action once evidence booking
issues surfaced, initiating policy changes, and holding employees accountable
through both discipline and referral to the DA for prosecution,” sheriff
spokeswoman Carrie Braun said in a statement.
“The
Orange County Sheriff’s Department is reviewing the Grand Jury’s
recommendations and will implement any that we believe will strengthen our
current procedures.”
She
noted that an audit of evidence booked after March 2018 is upcoming from Sergio
Perez, executive director of the county’s Office of Independent Review (OIR),
who reports to the Board of Supervisors.
“We
welcome OIR’s review of our evidence systems and believe it will confirm the
effectiveness of the controls we have put in place,” Braun said.
“The
test of an organization’s strength is how it responds when problems or
shortfalls come to light. The Grand Jury Report confirms that the Department
took swift action to correct the evidence issue.”
Sheriff’s
officials testified to the grand jury last summer that supervisors knowingly
allowed deputies to book evidence late in violation of policy – and only
deputies were punished, not managers.
A
sheriff executive testified a “large number” of deputies booked evidence late
in violation of policy and the problem was “department-wide.”
Deputies
testified that the emphasis at their stations was on making arrests, not
ensuring evidence was booked properly to make sure it stands up in court.
Grand
jurors repeatedly questioned whether anyone in management was disciplined, and
the answer was no.
Delays
in booking evidence can affect criminal cases by prompting questions about
whether the material was contaminated and if prosecutors can verify to courts
the evidence is the same as what was collected from a crime scene.
Grand
jurors underscored the crucial importance of proper evidence handling in their
report this week.
“Our
system of justice relies upon the proper collection and preservation of
physical evidence, as well as the honesty and integrity of those who are sworn
to ‘tell the truth,’ ” they wrote.
“Therefore,
it is imperative that those responsible for collecting and booking evidence do
so in a way that does not compromise the justice system.”
Voice
of OC
By Nick Gerda
May 27, 2021
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